We are back from PubCon and have lots to share. Each time we come back from a conference, we write up detailed documentation of what was learned and distribute to all of the employees. I decided we should do it a little differently this time around. Instead of distributing it in a Word doc to our staff, I am going to publish it on our blog. So this first post will be more of an overview and following posts throughout the next few weeks will be more detailed posts covering specific topics. So here it goes…

Local Search
There was a lot of discussion about local, Google Place Pages and how Google is now displaying Place Pages within the organic results. There are a lot of changes in this space, some of which will create opportunities for local businesses and some of which may create more challenges. This is worthy of its own blog post so keep your eyes open for one soon.

User Data Signals
It was speculated that Google now takes into account user data signals as one of the triggers to score a website’s worth. User data signals can be things such as Facebook Likes, Tweets, forwarded emails from Gmail, reviews, etc. We will also discuss this further in a future blog post.

SEO Tools
As is standard in search conferences, there is a lot of discussion revolving around tools and which of them are best to use. We will be trying out some of the recommended tools over the next couple of weeks and will report on our findings.

Page Speed
Lots of discussion here too. While it was said that Google is currently not using page speed as a very large factor in your rankings, it was the common agreement at PubCon that this factor will play a larger role over time. There was a lot of great advice on how to improve your website page speed. Rather than regurgitating what was discussed, we implemented some of these suggestions on a few of our sites and documented the process along with before and after page load results.

Google PPC
We sat in on a really good PPC session. One of the main key points pushed was that search queries matter more than keywords. There was a lot of discussion on how to improve your quality score and how a higher quality score will lower your CPC. Lots of good information about how to break out your ads into smaller ad groups and more accurately target your desired clicks and eliminate the non-converting or non-relevant traffic/clicks. We will be writing a couple of different posts about this with screen-shots in the weeks to come as we ourselves implement some of the suggestions.

Mobile
It’s no longer sufficient to be “thinking” about getting your site mobile ready – it is now crucial. With stats such as “mobile search queries have grown 500% in that last 2 years,” it is evident that your site needs to be mobile friendly if you want to tap in this rapidly growing traffic. This increase is due largely to the Android – which Google is investing in heavily – so this upward trend isn’t going away any time soon. Future blog posts to come on this topic will cover different ways you can make your site mobile friendly and methods you can use to capture those mobile searches.

HTML 5 and Microformats
This is more techie but there was some very good information on how to use microformats within your website pages/content and how to structure it with HTML5.We will be writing more about this too as we implement some of the suggestions into a couple of our sites.

I have been wondering for some time now how much longer our country can sustain its wealth and power without producing anything. Through long conversations with others about this topic, it’s clear that some feel we are producing, and offer examples such as the iPhone and iPad. While these devices are cool, are they really making a recognizable impact on our country’s economy and overall well-being? Are these things that will be in high demand from other countries? No.

Most of the manufacturing of these products and their parts are done overseas and we are consuming them like crazy. What are we producing that other countries are consuming like crazy? What do we have that is so valuable it makes other countries line up to buy it? Not some cool device that can easily be duplicated, but something that is unique, difficult to duplicate, and high demand. In short, something that will create millions of jobs and will place our country back in the position of a producer.

Up until recently, there didn’t seem to be an American company that had the drive, insight, or innovation to produce something that was a game-changer. Then I read about Google’s self-driving car. Yep, Google, the search engine giant, has stepped out of their box and tackled something kids (and adults!) dream of. Google has the mapping data, technology, connections and money to make this dream a reality. Not only is their self-driving car cool, but it would be very difficult for other countries to quickly duplicate or catch up with what Google has already done with it. This innovation has the potential to create millions of production, management, and research jobs here in the United States. People around the world would be knocking down our doors to purchase self-driving cars.

Now, the most important question: Will Google keep the production of this car in our country? Will they use their power and insight to create jobs here and keep the innovation, secrets, and technology here?

Google, you have the power to make a huge difference. Please use that power to help turn this great country around. You have officially grown up from being solely an internet and search company, and in my eyes, are now a company that can go down in history as turning our country around when it was on the brink of collapse. Google, what will you do?

I have been playing around (okay maybe obsessing) over Google instant search over the past couple of days and just wanted to layout some of my thoughts.

First from a user standpoint

I am not completely sure I like it. The instant changing results and how the screen flashes as I search is a little distracting. Those who know me will tell you that is because I am too simple, which is probably true. Maybe the hyperactive type personality will love this much more than me? On more than one occasion, I also received a message “Google Instant is off due to connection speed..”. Note that I am on a high speed cable modem connection so I feel sorry for all those folks on slower but still decent connections. I am wondering how much confusion this will cause.

Google instant search is off due to connection speed. Press Enter to search

From a results standpoint
I tested this out on a lot of different types of searches in a wide variety of niches. I noticed for some of the more competitive niches, the instant search favors and displays the large brands as you are typing your keywords. This is probably because most of the large brands dominate for short tail searches, therefore display first as you are typing the search being that your first couple of words would fall in a short tail search. This could have an effect on sites that are optimizing for the long tail around these competitive niches because a user may be inclined to click on a result that displays before they finish their entire long-tail search. Or users may just ignore the flashing instant results and finish typing their entire search string before looking at the results. It will be interesting to see how user’s behavior will change with this feature and if there will be lost traffic in long tail queries. You can be sure we will be eyeing our log files for this.

I noticed the instant search doesn’t do well for localized type search, at least in my tests. For example when searching for “2 bedroom condos in Pismo Beach” the instant search tried giving me results in Myrtle Beach and Destin FL. I had to keep typing until I typed “2 bedroom condos in Pismo” in order for me to get the results I wanted. Until instant search can predict what location I am wanting, I think a lot of the Real Estate and localized long tail searches will still have an impact.

Another example “size 9 women’s black boots” didn’t come close to pulling up what I wanted as I was typing until I starting typing the word boots. Interesting enough though, the second and third time I performed the search, Google displayed more relevant results when typing just “size 9 womens” so it seems as though the instant search also takes into account previous searches (personalized search). That didn’t happen with the Pismo Beach condo search though. No matter how many times I type that search, I am still presented with Myrtle Beach and Destin FL. I guess Google really wants me to move to SC or FL . I am sure Google will improve this overtime though.

From an SEO standpoint

One of the things I like about instant search is all of the other possibilities it gives you around a search. I think paying attention to the other options it gives you in that dropdown and optimizing for those can have a positive impact on your SEO and traffic you can obtain from targeting those other options. I think SEOs really need to pay attention to this because if it sticks, it will for sure be a game changer. I am also very interested to see how it affects our PPC ads and clicks. It is too soon for me to comment on that but after at least a few weeks of analyzing our PPC data, I am hoping to have a better idea. We will be keeping a close eye on our organic keyword traffic and PPC traffic to see what kind of impact this has and will try to report back in 30 days.

For the past few years, many have watched the landscape of the Real Estate business change drastically. It has been transforming from a closed data system that only those with access to the MLS had the keys to unlock, to an open system where most listings can be found just about anywhere by anyone. Buyers can now find listings on sites such such as Trulia, Zillow, and yes, Google Maps, without having to unlock those doors to the MLS data. I have felt for a long time now that Google had the data and many of the pieces in place to be a huge player in the Real Estate space. Some recent announcements this year point even more towards that.

Improving Real Estate Search On Google Maps

On July 6th, 2009, Google announced that real estate listings would now display within a map with a one-box that would take you to real estate listings when users search for property related queries.

Google Retires The “One at a Time” Feature

On July 30th, 2009, Google announced that they would no longer allow manually entered single listings. Maybe I read into it wrong, but at the time of the announcement I translated that into Google wanting to target the large data providers.

Place Pages for Google Maps

In September, 2009, Google launched Place Pages. There are Place Pages for businesses, points of interest, transit stations, neighborhoods, landmarks, and cities all over the world.

More Real Estate in Google Maps

On October 29th, Google announced some changes to Google Maps that would make it easier for you to find listings. “First of all, we’ve made it easier to find real estate listings. Now, you can simply select “Real Estate” from the ‘More’ button on the top right of any Google Map to discover listings.”

Integration of real estate listings with Place Pages

On November 19th, Google mentioned the integration of real estate listings with Place Pages, saying “Now clicking the “more info” link next to a listing takes you to a faster, easier-to-read page that gives you all of the information we have about a listing: photos, inspection times, videos, details, a Street View preview and nearby public transit information if available, allowing you to quickly find the listing you want and click through to the sources of the listing.”

Google to Acquire Yelp?

On December 17th, 2009, rumors were flying around that Google was in discussions to acquire Yelp. Acquiring Yelp, in my opinion, would allow Google to enhance its real estate portal with ratings and other localized information.

Google to Acquire Trulia?

On December 18th, 2009, rumors surfaced that Google is in discussions to acquire Trulia. “According to sources close to the situation, along with its pending bid for Yelp, Google has been in on-again, off-again acquisition talks with Trulia”.

Is it just me here or does this look like a pattern? I personally feel that if Google purchases Yelp and Trulia, this will be another game changer in the Real Estate space. What will this do to the MLS? Will the many MLS’s be as important or will Google eventually be the main source for real estate search and data? After all, the MLS’s don’t have all the listing data. They don’t have FSBO listings, foreclosures, or other listings from Agents that don’t belong to the MLS.

I must admit when I first starting hearing about real time search, I was a little nervous. The first thing that came to mind was, “This is going to be an easy way for spammers to blast us with their junk”. However, I convinced myself that the big search engines like Google and Bing would have things in place to filter this stuff out. I was right and I was wrong. I was right to fear that real time search would open up some bad stuff. I was wrong to think that the search engines would stop it.

Rae Hoffman, CEO and Co-Founder of Outspoken Media, began playing with the new feature and discovered some alarming results. Watch this video and you will see that this is a major issue. The thing that scares me the most is when Rae touched on safety concerns for children online. Please spread this video so it gets the attention of the search engines and hopefully they either remove the Twitter real time stream or they fix/filter the junk.

I have written in the past about the importance of having videos, blogs, etc. in your marketing plan. With the news today that Google is testing a new Google search sidebar, I am even more convinced. Why?

This new sidebar will be placed as a permanent fixture in the Google search engine. This means more people will click these options. If someone is doing an organic search for your niche, Google is making it even easier for them to search other verticals such as videos and blogs.

So how can you prepare for this?

Create videos around your niche and post those videos to YouTube and other popular video portals.

Optimize your images (image name, alt tag) for the page you place them in.

If you don’t already have a blog, it’s time to get one. Focus your blog around your niche.